The novel, written in the French-speaking world during the heyday of the Knights Templar, in the first half of the 1200s, is the first symbolic-religious treatment of the history of the Holy Grail. The search for the Holy Grail adds a spiritual dimension to the adventures of King Arthur's knights told in the Vulgate cycle. Lancelot's place is taken by Galahad, and the theological influence of the Cistercian order emerges with striking force in the novel. This is no accident, since the Cistercians were born in the 12th century. century, they also played a decisive role in the acceptance of the Templars, and The Search for the Holy Grail is the knightly novel in which the religious-spiritual Grail motif and the military-secular knightly motif are most deeply intertwined. The search for the Holy Grail can also be interpreted as a spiritual journey, which is made evident by the interpretations of dreams, dream interpretations and predictions that weave through and through the text. Various magical and otherworldly moments play a big role in the adventures, and the story is more structured than in other knight novels.
The Vulgate cycle, or Lancelot-Grail, is the most complete summary of the history of King Arthur and the Round Table. The cycle consists of five novels (The History of the Holy Grail, Merlin, Lancelot, The Search for the Holy Grail, The Death of King Arthur), of which the most important theologically, historically, and from the point of view of the Grail tradition is The Search for the Holy Grail, which is now being published. and for the first time in full Hungarian translation.